-From a ral perspective-

  Above the extremely chaotic battles that pyed out on the surface of Corust, and beyond the simirly chaotic air battles happening omospheric levels of the system. Surrounding the lonely Republiet, a ceaseless space battle tio unfold and spread its deadly presence. With every sed passing, more and more lives were permaly extinguished. Thousands of destroyed spaceships were floating about. Dead ships, whitil only retly were proud examples of the might of an era.

  The haunting forms of once powerful ships, now barely resembling their inal shape, were slowly dragged towards the surface by the invisible arms of the chaos engulfed phe now powerless ships, trapped by the gravitational field, now uo escape their iable end, were plunging down, one by one, heading towards their st journey. A huge ship burst into fmes, just outside of the dreadnought css battleship as it ehe atmosphere, and started to accelerate towards the grounds, leaving more and more pieces behind its trail.

  Soon it broke into twe pieces, then one of such pieces parted once again as the ship disappeared in the clouds and dust geed by its own burning.

  However, for anyone who watched the process, there could be no doubt that it would have repeated this a lot more times before it eventually crashed into the ground, creating even more havo the surface of the already wounded p.

  Anakin watched these events unfold with a heavy heart, praying for the force that the fallen debris will not result in too many civiliahs. A hope that… as things stood, was very unlikely.

  He lifted his heavy gaze and focused bato the monotonous battle that he had been direg for at least five hours now. At this time, the y of the dreadnought css battleship lost its shine, and the process that he was doing became little more than a monotonous cat-and-mouse py.

  He smiled wryly at the disturbing thought. Yes… it felt like a game, except… in this game, real people have paid the price for every a, every mistake and every single ht.

  -Heh…

  It was definitely easier to think about it as a game…

  He thought dryly, but didn’t give voice to those thoughts.

  He was a General for many years now, something that always felt funny taking into sideration how youually was… As, at times like this, he felt anything, but young.

  He has grown numb to death, somewhere along the road in the past years of endless missions and war. It was a trait that no Jedi should have… he knows this, however, deep in his heart, he also knows that this is the exact reason that allowed him to bee a good General.

  When people bee little more than chess pieces in your eyes, you will be able to effectively trol them. This was something that Sidious clearly reized in his as a long time ago, but now that he also did, he had every iion of turning this ability against the very bastard that was responsible for the current gaxy wide crisis.

  A rge explosion shook the frame of the enormous ship. One of many previous ones, Anakin didn’t eve aer feeling it. One soldier responsible for the ship’s systems shouted over to him.

  -General, sector fourteen has suffered a major psma explosion. We have closed off the damaged se. Air-pressure has been stabilized, no further leeks are reported.

  -Any critical damage?

  -There are none, sir.

  -Good. tinue.

  -Right away, sir.

  He nodded, and refocused on the overall battle situation spread out in front of him. Their forces were standing their grounds surprisingly well, thanks to the battle meditation, which has been in stant effeore than a few hours now.

  Still, this was the fourth destroyed and isoted ship partition, such a rge ship as these were separated into twenty-four such partitions. Most of them were not crucial in their role, and they could be closed off in case of major damage. They could not allow the global air-pressure of the ship to be risked while leaking too much air into space through damaged parts. The air inside a spaceship was simir to the blood flowing in the veins of humans. If too much of it is lost, the ship will be having difficulties to fun, well, not the ship, but the people i.

  Unfortunately, closing off damaged partitions also meant people trying to leave such damaged parts were mercilessly cut off. For that reason, after the received damage it was normal to wait a few minutes, giving a ce for such people to evacuate, but these partitions were huge and everybody k how little was that time.

  Still, there are situations that are excluded from such regutions. One of them is a psma explosion. It means that the damage caused an ammunition energy cell pocket to go off. If something like that happens, it is safe to say there are no survivors.

  Another ini disturbed his silent thoughts.

  -General, we have received an ining call! Based on military code, it’s the ship anded by Adi Gallia. What are your orders?

  -Solidify the e and direct it to the main holo unicator.

  -Uood.

  Soon the e was made, and the sight of the said Jedi Master appeared h in the middle of the holo unicator device, all in its blueish hued glory.

  Anakin thought in a voiceless grunt. When will the military decide to pce colored holo devices on already trillions of credits worth of ships? They have a tendency to cut ers on the most ridiculous stuff, really.

  He sighed

  However, his lighthearted thoughts were immediately chased away when he saw that the woman oher end of the call was heavily injured, and only able to stand by the help of two soldiers supp her on both sides. One of her shoulders and a part of her head were bandaged. She had clearly just received first aid and bacta shots.

  Anakin's expression ged to a worried one as he asked.

  -Master Gallia, are you alright?

  The injured master seemed a bit annoyed by the obviously stupid question, but she shook her head lightly and answered in a weak, but calm, voice.

  -I… I will live, Anakin… My ship has been invaded by droids, I just wao thank you for sending the reinforts. They arrived at just the right time… we miraculously mao destroy the remaining droids, if barely. However, I have to ask, how did you realize that we were in trouble? We thought that our unications were disrupted by the invading forces.

  Anakin raised an eyebrow, while taking in the question with a fused expressioually, he said in a deliberately slow way.

  -Cough… well, Master… I would be happy to take credit for su achievement, but I am afraid that I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. We did not receive your request for support, and therefore we did not send out such troops either, at least not under my and. However, I am still happy to know that someone has e to your rescue… When things calm down, I will personally reward the troopers who have shown suitiative in radery. All things sidered, and taking in your current state, I would ask you to retreat away from the battlefield. Do not engage in direct battle, if that is possible.

  Now it was Gallia’s time to be surprised.

  -Wait… it wasn’t you? You didn’t receive our request either. How strahen how did they mao arrive… five me, for my ramblings… but the timing was just too perfect for it to be a ce…

  Seeing the heavy fusion on the faaster Gallia, Anakin sighed and decided to share his observations over the st few hours.

  -Master Gallia, if someone is as experienced as you and feels like this, I am more than ined to say it is definitely not a ce. The reason in more than likely to lie with our new guests. The etlefield has been covered by an intense presence. Someone has been perf a powerful and widespread battle meditation to support our forces and simirly weaken the enemy’s armies. Over the st couple of hours, I have witoo many minor miracles and unlikely possibilities happening, that I find myself growing numb to it.

  Master Gallia was surprised by this. She was clearly trying to assess this new and important information. Now, with this new uanding in her pocket, she was finding a reasonable answer for many unlikely outes fluidly happening, especially irosped not while ihick of the battle.

  -Battle meditation, you say? That expins many things… Still, most of the soldiers serving on my ship were killed in a, and the ship itself was heavily damaged. I will follow ygestions Anakin, areat. I do not wish to be a burden. There are barely enough soldiers to trol the ship. It would be foolish to tempt another invasion… Now I believe that I should not take any more of your time. May the force be with you.

  -With you as well, Master…

  With that, the unication el was cut, and the versation came to an abrupt end.

  Leaving behind a somewhat fused Anakin, he was unsure of to hahe Jedi Masters, especially those who were in the cil which just expelled him from the order…

  He shook his head lightly.

  It was not like he gave them much of a choice really… but still, he didn’t expect to hear a “may the force be with you…” from any one of them, except maybe Obi’Wan… in the real future.

  Was it merely a habit, or iional? He wondered for a few seds, then decided to focus otle instead of thinking over stupid stuff.